NPP Primaries: Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu rallies behind deputy, Adwoa Safo

“…the Speaker is a big uncle to me. His son is contesting. He’s a good person undoubtedly, he’s worked for the party I must admit. Except that in terms of parliamentary duties, I think that my own deputy, Adwoa Safo, if I were a voter there, I would vote for Adwoa Safo.”

These were the words of Majority Leader and MP for Suame, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu when he weighed in on the competition between two of the governing party’s parliamentary candidates ahead of the NPP’s primaries on Saturday.

Despite having excellent relations with the Oquaye family, the Majority leader told GhanaWeb in an interview that he would pick the incumbent member of parliament for Dome-Kwabenya to be voted back into the House.

He explained that it was important to maintain her, having chalked the rare feat of being the first woman to be Majority Leader, albeit deputy.

Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu furthered that there was the need to acknowledge and cherish her achievement because it projected her competence in Parliament, hence, there was the need to help her progress to the highest level.

“…in the annals of the republic, since independence, we have never had a woman as a deputy majority leader. I think that position should be cherished and acknowledged. Today if I’m not there, she is the person who will be filling in for me so on occasions she can be acting as the Majority leader. What it means is that she’s capable of rising to become the Majority Leader, so I wouldn’t want to maybe vote for somebody to begin from the backbench,” he told GhanaWeb.

Again, the MP for Suame who has been in the house for over 2 decades intimated that it was necessary to let members who are voted to represent their constituencies stay in the house longer to build their competence.

“Building the competence of parliamentarians is not a four-year job, it’s not. It takes a while; I would even say it’s not an eight-year job. You require much more time. In parliament today, when people are talking about good performers in parliament, how come my name features strongly, how come the name of Bagbin features strongly.

“I’m not a yesterday product, Bagbin is not a yesterday product, he precedes the day before yesterday… it should tell anybody that if you want to really build our parliament, we must really ensure that people who come to parliament stay for quite some time,” he added

He also averred that Adwoa Safo was among the few members who were very active in the house and understood the tenets of Parliament.

He, therefore, urged the delegates to also rally behind the incumbent MP to continue to represent them in the august house.

Mike Oquaye Junior, Ghana’s High Commission to India has declared his intention to unseat the incumbent MP for Dome-Kwabenya, who doubles as the Minister of Procurement, as the NPP goes to the polls on Saturday, June 20, 2020, to elect parliamentary candidates in constituencies where it has sitting MPs.

The two aspirants do not see eye to eye.

The situation has caused a divide among the ranks of the New Patriotic Party in the constituency.

Meanwhile, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has threatened not to include the two contestants in his future government if they cause any confusion in the constituency during the primaries.